Bio

A committed, passionate, and nationally respected jazz educator for over 35 years; Chuck Owen is recognized equally and throughout the jazz industry for his unique compositional voice. Thoughtful, creative, evocative, and intensely personal . . . . his compositions and arrangements are steeped in the jazz tradition but draw liberally and often playfully from a diverse array of additional influences that include contemporary classical, American folk/roots music, Latin, funk, hip-hop. . . even country!

Since founding it in 1995, Owen’s primary creative outlet has been the 19-piece Jazz Surge. Owen has served as conductor, primary composer/arranger, and producer of all of its six highly-feted CDs – the last 3 of which have garnered GRAMMY nominations!

Whispers On the Wind, the ensemble’s most recent release, was recognized with four (!) 2018 GRAMMY nominations including: Best Large Jazz Ensemble Recording, Best Improvised Jazz Solo, Best Instrumental Composition & Best Instrumental Arrangement. In addition, the CD was named #1 Big Band Album in the 39th Annual Jazz Station Awards and appeared in the Top 10 Jazz Releases of 2017 of several other prominent polls/critics awards.

Expanding on the American folk/roots leanings long evident in the band’s offerings, “Whispers” is a suite of 7 pieces linked by a somewhat ethereal vision and examination of the American tradition – its values, landmarks, folklore, heroes, and myths. Associating quotes from authors Stephen King, Larry McMurtry, and Cormac McCarthy with each piece; Owen’s music displays a clear affinity for the local color, wry sense of humor, unique personalities, strong sense of place, and disarmingly unsentimental honesty for which these authors are noted.

Enlisting the evocative violin of Sara Caswell, the luminescent harmonica of Gregoire Maret, and an array of acoustic guitars deftly played by Corey Christiansen, Owen has created a sound drenched in atmosphere – at times buoyant, playful, and triumphant – at others, melancholy and mysterious; but always coming straight out of the American heartland. Randy Brecker, last appearing with the Surge on A Comet’s Tail, returns with a blistering solo on Into the Blue as well as a rollicking turn on Gunslingers – a somewhat other-wordly, “Messengers” minor blues.

“. . . episodic, dramatic and picturesque. Owen deserves to be ranked high among today’s composers/arrangers.” Scott Yanow, NY City Jazz Record

“ . . a masterpiece! Sounds of Timeless Jazz.com

In 2013, Owen and the Jazz Surge released, River Runs, AConcerto for Jazz Guitar, Saxophone, & Orchestra – a 5-movement, hour-long, genre-bending composition that draws its inspiration from various American Rivers , . . . . and specifically, Owen’s float trips down them. Recognized with two GRAMMY nominations (Best Instrumental Composition & Best Instrumental Arrangement) and composed under the auspices of a prestigious Guggenheim Fellowship, the work soars majestically through a unique blend of large-scale symphonic forces, propulsive jazz rhythms, evocative solos, and tinges of American folk/roots music (Owen at one point referencing – and thoroughly deconstructing- the well-known “Shenandoah”).

“ . . . a masterpiece of aural sounds; a dazzling array of prismatic colors and textures that envelop the listener in a splendidly evocative way. Owen masterfully creates his cinematic music in such a way as to seamlessly meld modern jazz improvisation with more traditional orchestrations and the result is a marvelous amalgam of the two. Mr. Owen has proven himself to be a compositional force to be reckoned with.”

Huffington Post

“ . . . .it’s as if Owen has captured an entire ecosystem with its messy, sometimes awe-inspiring, sometimes opaque, frequently frightening detail. Like water, Owen’s music will go everywhere it can . . . . .imaginative, paradigm-shifting and often exhilarating . . . combining elements as diverse as swing, heavy-metal, bluegrass, and the avant-garde and making them work together seamlessly.”NY Music Daily

“. . .remarkably beautiful music . . . on the model of such predecessors as Gershwin’s ‘Rhapsody in Blue’ or Duke Ellington’s ‘A Tone Parallel to Harlem’.”Seattle Post

It was The Comet’s Tail (2009), however; the Surge’s fourth recording that first clearly captured the imagination of critics and audiences around the world. Celebrating the compositional output of the late jazz icon, Michael Brecker by re-envisioning his work through the eyes of various arrangers in addition to Owen himself (including frequent Brecker collaborators, Gil Goldstein & Vince Mendoza), the recording was described as “riotous and joyous” (JazzTimes), “muscular” (Downbeat), and “deserving of universal attention” (All Music Guide). Joining the Surge were a host of special guests (Randy Brecker, Dave Liebman, Joe Lovano, Mike Mainieri, Adam Nussbaum, & Mike Stern) all frequent Brecker collaborators. A 2009 GRAMMY nomination, along with many “best of the year” mentions, followed.

The Surge has performed at a wide range of festivals, conferences, and clubs; serving as the resident orchestra for Central Florida’s Jazz Masterworks Series as well as the International Jazz Composer’s Symposium. These events, produced by Owen (originally in conjunction with the USF Center for Jazz Composition (CJC) and, more recently, with the International Society of Jazz Arrangers and Composers (ISJAC)), resulted in a steady stream of performances with noted jazz composers such as: Bob Brookmeyer, John Clayton, Chick Corea, Dave Douglas, Slide Hampton, Bill Holman, Jim McNeely, Bob Mintzer, and Gerald Wilson along with many, many others.

In addition to his work with Surge, Owen has undertaken a fairly diverse body of commissions and projects. Collaborations with the Netherlands’ Metropole Orchestra, the Aarhus Jazz Orchestra (Denmark), the U.S. Army Jazz Ambassadors, Confluences, and tenor saxophonist Jack Wilkins have all resulted in significant contributions on recordings. Other performances include the Smithsonian Jazz Masterworks Orch., the Tonight Show Orch., the Brussels Jazz Orch., and the Cincinnati Symphony Pops Orch. among others. In addition to his recent Guggenheim Fellowship, Owen is the recipient of the prestigious 2000 IAJE/ASCAP commission in honor of Louis Armstrong and three Florida Individual Artist Fellowships. He has over 100 published compositions for jazz ensemble and is a frequent guest artist, clinician, and lecturer at universities throughout the country.

Born in Norfolk, VA, Owen spent his elementary school days in Omaha, NE before his family moved to Cincinnati (which remains home for his brother and much of his mother’s extended family). Following a year at the College of Wooster (OH), Owen matriculated to the University of North Texas where he received a BM in Music Education (trombone concentration). There, a host of mentors and friends, along with a dozen jazz “lab” bands all hungry for new music, proved the perfect incubator for a budding composer/arranger. He went on to earn his Master’s degree in Orchestral Conducting (!) at California State University, Northridge before spending another couple of years in Los Angeles free-lancing and apprenticing with film/TV composer, Patrick Williams, via a National Endowment for the Arts Study Grant.

In 1981, Owen moved (along with his wife and 3-month old daughter, Nicole) to Tampa to accept the first dedicated faculty post in Jazz Studies at the University of South Florida. With the enviable and exhilarating opportunity to build a program from scratch – designing virtually every facet of the curriculum and degree programs – Owen immersed himself in teaching. USF Jazz Studies Program quickly became acknowledged as one of the nation’s best. Now accorded with the honorific title/rank of, “Distinguished University Professor”, Owen has been recognized by USF with its Outstanding Undergraduate Teaching Award, President’s Award for Faculty Excellence, and most recently, the Outstanding Research Award.

In 2004, a long held vision, the USF Center for Jazz Composition, was birthed . . . . with Owen as its Director. Espousing a mission that sought to illuminate the role of the composer in jazz as well as to assist in its continuing development, the CJC launched several prominent programs: the Jazz Composers’ Symposium, the International Jazz Arranging Competition, the Jazz Masterworks Series, & the Michael Brecker Tribute Project – leading to the publication of the Center’s first CD with Owen as producer/arranger/conductor. Along the way, several works were commissioned, others transcribed, and dozens premiered. Sadly, funding for the Center was a casualty of the 2008 recession and was forced to close its doors in 2014.

In 2015, Chuck met with two former students, Dr. Dave Stamps & Dr. Brian Coyle, and began discussions/planning that led to the formation of the International Society of Jazz Arrangers & Composers. Although still in its infancy, that Society has already been received enthusiastically by a world-wide array of composers who flocked to the first ISJAC-sponsored Jazz Composers’ Symposium in May of 2017 which Owen produced. He currently serves as President of ISJAC.

Owen’s prominent professional service has included a term as President of theInternational Association for Jazz Education, as “governor” for the Florida Chapter of the National Academy of Recording Arts & Sciences, and as a grants panelist/chair for the Pulitzer Prize in Music, the National Endowment for the Arts, the Grammy Awards, the Florida Division of Cultural Affairs, and numerous others. He is the author of several articles on jazz composition and for years routinely reviewed new music for the Jazz Educators Journal.

This incredible sculpture looks quite at home here in the mountains of North Carolina, doesn’t it!I have rarely been as moved or touched as when the members of the Jazz Surge presented me with this piece they had specially commissioned from Penny Hardy, the British artist whose larger than life “Blown Away” sculpture is featured on our “Whispers On the Wind” CD cover.Wow . . . . .words still elude me . . . . . . . .!!

USF Student Jazz Composer Awards

Two of my USF student composers have received national/international recognition and awards for their work within the last year.Most recently, Simon Lasky (current MM student in Jazz Composition) was the winner of the British Composer Award for Best Small Group Jazz Composition for his work “Close to Ecstasy”.The ceremony was in London with coverage and an interview with Simon by the BBC (amongst others).Matt Horanzy’s (MM in Jazz Comp, 2018) composition “Init 1” was the national winner of both the National Band Association’s Jazz Composition Contest as well as ASMAC’s (the American Society of Music Arrangers and Composers) Bill Conti Big Band Competition.As a result of the NBA award, the work was performed by the famed Airmen of Note in December at the Midwest Band Clinic in Chicago.Matt has been accepted to participate in the BMI Jazz Composers’ Workshop in Fall of 2019.

Both were selected to present at the upcoming Jazz Composers’ Symposium.Big congrats!!